Strengthening Human Qualities

“It’s not about female/male; it’s about feminine-masculine.”

Thanks Shelley Zalis & Forbes for this article on strengthening feminine leadership attributes (regardless of sex) and expanding leadership traits. From #metoo to every day actions I’m seeing women stand up as leaders more often as well as women no longer standing for disempowering environments, actions and behaviours.

The businessperson, problemsolver, engineer, auntie and female in me is cheering.

Here’s to being human.

What’s coming?

Keen to imagine the future? In this interview Joe Lubin discusses what life will be like owing to blockchain tech, what’s coming and… it’s in layman’s terms (well done!).

“Any sort of transaction involving identity or legally enforceable agreements or assets… move much more fluidly because we can build clearing and settlement into the instance of the transaction.”

Jump in at 36:38mins for the future view of Ethereum and blockchain tech. Enjoy.

How to never worry again.

Kinda important, hey?

What’s going on online?

Love this. Own what you do.
The Satoshi (the original Bitcoin) white paper on the walls of the Pantera Capital‘s HQ (blockchain investment firm):

~

Sayonara middle men:

I’ve been in the land of rivers (north coast NSW, Australia), in awe of the quiet beaches, whales breaching out to sea, delicious food and amazed at the many, many campervans and travellers in this part of Australia.

Expanding Self

This image of self development had my mind smile as the rippling lines show an individual growing outwards from the original body as development occurs. Perhaps the ripples could come from the whole body. It’s from the Never Ending Quest book (p181) by Clare W Graves, Cowan & Todorovic. I’ve been reading from page 195 to better understand and apply spiral dynamics. Thanks to Ross & Steve Mc for the inspiration.

Recent Internet Fascination

NASA on Instagram: “Four large islands are hard to miss in satellite imagery of the
Severnaya Zemlya archipelago in the Russian high Arctic. Spanning 37,000…”

“[Bitcoin]’s already storing $125bn of wealth – for tens of millions of people.
It’s the only financial system I’m aware of which has had 24×7 uptime for nine years.”Pantera Capital October news

There are now many great blockchain podcast shows to listen to.Here’s a favourite this week. Thanks Ross.

Loic’s writing again and his email was full of uplift. Here’s just some of it ~

Enliven your way of being and vision with Peta Kelly’s new book “The Earth is Hiring“. I mentioned Peta previously – she provides clarity around the future of business, leadership, getting things done and finances.

Establish Diversity.

A simple tip from Meetup and Carta: intentionally build in diversity at the start so it’s embedded as your business / initiative continues. Simple!

Well done to Carta and Meetup for cracking the code on diversity and to Fred Wilson for reporting on it (read more here). I’m looking forward to using this awareness in my next initiatives as I can see it working well.

Winter has chilled Melbourne in the past week with over 1m of snow falling on my beloved Mt Hotham hills.

I’m writing from Bali, visiting a dear friend temporarily living here and celebrating my (tropical) birthday next week. The lush green surrounds are relaxing and as always the food is stylishly presented and scrumptious. It brings a grin to my face seeing so much life, relaxing on the shores at sunset.

May all be well in your environs.

_____

I’ve been working with three organisations to have them become more focused and agile. Interesting the topic of conversation has increasingly been about roles – new roles at that.

Here are the insights ~

The Strategic Advisor + Performance Coach

I find working with high performing leaders fascinating and rewarding. Being in strategic conversations, using natural instinct to hone people’s aspirations into realistic business plans and actions, clearing their way when needed, seeing individuals fly and surprise themselves – it’s good fun.

Recently clients have been wondering ~

a) how growing organisations with high performers set themselves up to ‘self organise’ – the impossible dream that may be possible – where individuals can be self-led in a culture and environment that has them progress, perform, develop, enjoy life,…

b) what high performers need to succeed

c) how to differentiate an organisation to attract high performers

In high performance environments trust can be built quickly as people deliver what they say they’re going to, or maturely communicate and reset if they can’t, and agility can happen in part because individuals know what they’re fascinated by and what they’re good at, and communication can be direct with this undercurrent of respect and vision alignment.

When people are operating in these environs, new ways are required to support their progress, enjoyment and development.

Instinctively, and from experience, one of the solutions is having access to strong and respected supporters, guides, leaders and trusted peers to listen, to suggest practical solutions, and nudge (kindly, sometimes strongly).

Such people can use their intuition to sense what the person needs to gain progress (as an individual AND in their projects/activities/organisations), so they feel heard, supported, weight lifted off their shoulders, understood, appreciated, have clear direction and more.

Cue: [some aspects of] Wendy from the show “Billions” who’s known for contributing value that correlates directly to the company’s great success.

She’s a strategic advisor and performance coach who meets with individuals at set and spontaneous times and does all of the above. She’s there when needed to uplift performance and outcomes and involved in strategic decisions, planning and is constantly aligning people’s direction to the detailed vision.

In high performance environments people are motivated to improve so tailored support makes a difference. Perhaps your organisation could do with a character(s) like this?

(Hey Aussies, you can watch Billions on Stan)

The DigitalResearcher role.

For close to ten years I’ve encouraged clients to engage a DigitalResearcher in their organisation: a person who can track and explore trends, emerging tech, products and new entrants via relevant forums and sites such as Kickstarter, social media and their (expanding) wide network of industry and market experts. As delivery becomes faster / instantaneous, having a person delivering these insights (and inspiring others to do so) seems obvious. I’ve often worked with wise Eddie Harran to provide these services for clients.

Opening up to opportunities and being aware of the risks is good business. Get started!

Your role in this research.

Being connected to what fascinates you as an individual affords a natural tendency to the research just mentioned.

An organisation of aligned individuals, all contributing insights to what’s happening, what’s coming and highlighting risks to be mitigated sounds great to me.

This may have you believing your BIG ideas are possible and lead you in to protecting your crazy thinking.

I love the idea of running fast with experience and instinct – perhaps that means checking business cases/plans at the door of the “crazy factory of your organisation” and getting on with bringing your moonshots to life.

There’ll be more of this happening in the future. “Here’s to the crazy ones”, hey Steve Jobs?

“This is a very short, roughly 10-minute, episode. It explains how to ..escape incremental thinking and think truly BIG. I loved it so much that I now listen to it on a regular basis as a reminder. Perhaps you’ll end up doing the same…. Astro is currently Captain of Moonshots (CEO) of X, Alphabet’s moonshot factory for building magical, audacious ideas that, through science and technology, can be brought to reality.” Tim Ferriss

Get Up To Speed With Bitcoin & Crypto’s.

After watching and reading loads of bitcoin, blockchain, cryptocurrency, ethereum talks and posts, I’ve found “The Internet of Money” book written by Andreas M. Antonopoulos the quickest, most engaging listen. It’ll take you from not understanding to really clever, easy-to-comprehend ideas.

If you’ve been thinking you need to learn about blockchain or have a twinkling of interest, there’s something there for you to uncover.

2. Login and use your free credit to purchase “The Internet of Money” written by Andreas M. Antonopoulos.

3. On your smartphone download the Audible app, login, then click the image ofAndreas’ book to start downloading the book.

4. Grab your headphones and hit play. 4 hours 8 minutes straight will do it though I like to listen when I’m driving, walking, or while I’m doing something that doesn’t require much attention.

Let me know how you go.

Crypto’s to the end of2017.

With their wider utility, it’s great to see increasing interest in Ethers. I’m interested to watch what happens with crypto values to the end of the 2017. Perhaps they’ll be in more holiday conversations and people may have time to setup online wallets and purchase.

Favourite Reads & Listens.

Excited to have started using web browser Brave, powered by BAT tokens, on my computer and iPhone. Less bugs than expected (still a few) though enjoying it as a alternative to Chrome.

Nick Hand’s videos are a calm, collected, usually fascinating watch. He has a respectful and kind way of delving into the person he profiles. Impressive too as many of short films are gathered as Nick rides his bike around countries. I attended Nick’s Do Lectures video workshop in Wales and it was so good! Next time you’re in Bristol, visit him at the Letterpress Collective.

Great online presence.

Delivering all the answers… this captivating site from Nick Jaffe helps you prepare your adventure. Go stay!

Great tweets and replies from Elon about selling hats to fund The Boring Company ($20 per hat x 50,000 hats = $1 million). Last I checked he was at 42k and made a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy joke. So fun! His twitter bio has me chuckling: